Work

I've been asked how I am getting on with my work and if I like my job. If I can be brutally honest, I don't really enjoy it. On the positive side, I am getting used to working there and no longer get headaches and the weariness it brought me when I first started. I remember the first two weeks were the most difficult. Many will wonder. What's so difficult about playing with children? It's such an easy job. Physically easy it is but mentally draining at the same time. Yes, I don't have to rack my brains to come up with budgets or write reports. Anyway, how hard it is to play Lego, dolls, trains, animals, dinosaurs, puzzles and play dough with little kids? Not at all but there is just an X number of times I can roll and knead the dough, build train tracks with them, make different animal sounds etc before I get really, really bored. I like changes. That's the reason why I was always changing the positions of the furniture in our old place. I don't like to do the same thing over and over again. I get bored very easily. Right now, my job is just an extension of what I do at home. Only thing is there are more than 20 children at the setting. When I first started, I found it very intensive, the noise and number of children. Many of the kids have just turned two. Understandably, they get very upset when their parents leave and would cry, some inconsolably for a long time. I had to reassure them, console them, distract them, whatever I could think of to make them stop crying. That was why I got really tired and had headaches. Now, I'm used to it all. Working also means that I have less time to do my chores. Hence the house is not as tidy as when we first moved here. (See, I'm really bad at multi-tasking.) When I see the mess, I get moody which is not good for the wellbeing of the family. But all's not doom and gloom though. I do enjoy having conversations and interacting with some of the children. There are a couple who are simply adorable. Occasions such as when they like to sit on my lap, hug me for no reason, make me cakes (play dough), just want me to hold their hands, make my mundane job more enjoyable and the best of them all is once a girl wanted me to bring her to the toilet and when another of my colleague volunteered to bring her, she declined and said she wanted me because she loves me. That was really sweet and I was honestly touched. But then there are of course some who are really, er.....really challenging. I'm not showing my white flag just yet. The income, though little, has enabled me to contribute to the household expenses and I'm enjoying having some pocket money which is really liberating!